Where the strong are weak, where the noble are all-too-gentle- there builds it its loathsome nest; the parasite lives where the great have small sore-places.
What is the highest of all species of being, and what is the lowest? The parasite is the lowest species; yet he who is of the highest species feeds most parasites.
For the soul which has the longest ladder, and can go deepest down: how could there fail to be most parasites upon it?-
-The most comprehensive soul, which can run and stray and rove furthest in itself; the most necessary soul, which out of joy flings itself into chance:-
-The soul in Being, which plunges into Becoming; the possessing soul, which seeks to attain desire and longing:-
-The soul fleeing from itself, which overtakes itself in the widest circuit; the wisest soul, to which folly speaks most sweetly:-
-The soul most self-loving, in which all things have their current and counter-current, their ebb and their flow:- oh, how could the loftiest soul fail to have the worst parasites?
20.
O my brothers, am I then cruel? But I say: What falls, that shall one also push!
Everything of today- it falls, it decays; who would preserve it! But I- I wish also to push it!
Know you the delight which rolls stones into precipitous depths?- Those men of today, see just how they roll into my depths!
